Nursing bottles are, of course, commonly utilized in the feeding of infants. There are several problems with existing nursing bottles, however. These include bloating and excess gas consumption during feeding, causing the infant to experience discomfort. In addition, current bottles may be difficult to clean manually. Finally, prior art nursing bottles may not be contributing sufficiently to the development of fine motor skills of the infant's hands and fingers.
Thus, with respect to excessive gas consumption, typical nursing bottles provide only one aperture for both liquid to be delivered to an infant as well as for air to enter a bottle. Under this arrangement, known in the art as a closed system, when an infant begins suctioning liquid out of a nipple, negative pressure begins to build inside the bottle. Eventually, when this negative pressure inside the bottle equals the positive pressure outside the bottle, the infant can no longer receive liquid out of the bottle. The infant is then forced to cease suctioning, and take a breath. When this happens, the negative pressure within the bottle draws air into the bottle through the aperture in the nipple. This air then mixes with the liquid inside the bottle, forming air bubbles within the liquid. When the infant resumes nursing, the air bubbles are consumed, often causing the infant gas and discomfort.
Many existing nursing bottles are also difficult to clean by hand due to a flat closed end design. This design makes it difficult to efficiently fit a cleaning instrument, such as a brush, into all portions of a closed end of the bottle.
Many nursing bottles provide a gripping aid that only develops an infant's gross motor skills. However, a gripping aid that also aids fine motor skill development not only assists in the nursing process, but can also stimulate strength, dexterity and independence.
A need therefore existed for an improved nursing bottle with: an open system capable of preventing air from entering the bottle and mixing with liquid during nursing, a hemispherical closed end to ease cleaning, and fine motor dexterity rings to improve the fine motor skills of an infant and to make the bottle easier to grip.